The Wanting Comes In Waves

All Sam/Dean, All The Time

Reaction to Episode 9.04

October 30th, 2013

This was an episode that you had to already like Charlie to enjoy. And luckily for me I do.I like her a whole lot, because she keeps the Winchesters off-balance the whole time in a way no other character really ever has. They don't know what to do with her, do they protect her, treat her like a kid sister, use her skills, admire her genius, learn from her, never fully understand her geek references, put up with her addiction to reading the books about them (and bringing them up), encourage her hunting, let her get away with asking questions about their relationship with each other. They've let her into their world of two in a way they never have with Kevin or even Cas. She's like a Bobby substitute in a way that is even more challenging to their status quo. And I love that, plus I find Felicia Day entertaining and beautiful.

So my favorite part was the scene where Charlie kills the witch, one of Dorothy's red shoes to the back of the skull, what a great kill, really made me laugh, and I'm glad it was Charlie getting to wield the shoe, and that line with the wind blowing in her hair. Charlie may be the MarySuest of them all to some, but you know, I like that aspect of her. It's fun to have a character on the show that I could maybe somehow picture myself as. Not that I'm her age or have her abilities, but it's escapism at it's best to be to even imagine myself in the story and holding my own along with Sam and Dean. So yeah, I don't care, I like having such a fun, well- thought out character that has her own backstory and motivations, and her red hair, and she gets all the cool lines!I really wanted Kevin and Charlie to meet, especially to have an outsider POV discussion of the Winchesters. It made no sense for them to take Kevin out of the bunker after Dean made such a big deal about him being family. Missed opportunity there. I was glad that there was at least a short conversation about why Cas was gone.

Robbie Thompson, the writer of the episode tweeted last night:@rthompson1138 ;The boys swapped dialogue in this scene re: reading books. They know the characters best & it made nice Sam/Charlie moment

Wow, really? That's super hard to imagine that scene with the dialogue switched, isn't it? Sam giving Dean a hard time for reading GOT and Dean replying with the line about books with pictures? Just no. Seems like a really basic characterization to me. Reminds me very much of the Metatron/Megatron line in 7.21 "Reading is Fundamental". Which should have been switched imo, there is no way Sam wouldn't have known who Metatron was.

I really liked Dorothy and Charlie together, and would not say no to having them come back together at some point to save the boys somehow.

The witch was scary and a little goofy, loved her green goopy smoke exits and the view of OZ through the door was great, that spell in the cauldron was super. Really dug the special FX this episode.

Dean's idea of a day off relaxing is takeout and watching tv with his brother, simple pleasures are sometimes the best, and how funny that he picked up GOT. My head-canon is that Dean noticed Sam reading the first book and figured he'd want to see the tv show. Sam's bashful happiness that his brother came up with his day off idea is so cute.

Dean calling on Zeke again. I love how Jensen's playing Dean's reaction to SamZeke, he's so freaked out, almost afraid or disgusted, just really disturbed by seeing his brother be possessed by another being. He's not just tralala, no big deal about, it still genuinely disturbs him, as it should, so good. And he keeps having to make these split second decisions, first to save Sam's life, then Cas', now Charlie's. Will this power he's wielding via Zeke go to his head? It's pretty convenient to have this angel around to always rescue one's loved ones, but will he use that to save some victim-of-the-week? So much for 'what's dead should stay dead', but that's been true for a long time now for Dean.

I like that I'm still not sure about Zeke's intentions, it seems like he's on the up and up still, especially since he keeps arguing against using his powers to resurrect people. His comment this time about how he'd have to "stay in your brother's body longer than either of us want." was really interesting.

Sam is starting to figure this out, "Who's Zeke?" was awesome, and you could just see Dean's stomach sinking at the idea that he'd have to explain himself. I'm still interested in how the reveal is going to happen and what the fallout will be.

How much do I love that Crowley keeps shouting "Bollocks!"? (a whole lot!) A nice shout out to Bobby who he obviously misses (and his tag line of Balls!). Crowley's hiss was scary because it was so unexpected, and then it made me laugh. Him and his crayon, hopefully he can't McGyver his way out of the trap with that. (where did Sam come up with a crayon?) Although when they left him unsecured to run off after the witch I thought something bad would happen.

I loved the key to Oz, that would be a prop I'd be running off with, it was seriously beautiful, that and Dorothy's journal (and motorcycle, makes grabby hands).

Finding all these new parts of the MOL bunker is great, and I enjoyed that the whole episode was contained within that space. Dean discovering that there's a garage makes it all that much better. And that Dean cleans the kitchen. My wincest-shipper-goggles made me see Sam's room as the place with the tv and dvd player as just for show to Charlie so that she doesn't see that they of course both actually sleep in "Dean's room". Dean's room not having a tv and dvd player because Sam read somewhere that not having a tv in your bedroom means better sleep and better sex.

Who wants to see Dean and/or Sam on some of those motorcycles? A million fan hands go up!! We know what they look like on their mini-bikes: and what Jared looks like on a motorcycle (yum):

So someone better start writing an episode where only motorcycles can be used for some reason.

Now to the great brother scenes in this episode, Dean really did not understand why Sam was holding himself back from calling the bunker his home. I enjoyed his bafflement and new-found understanding.

Sam knew he wasn't really explaining it very well or completely to Dean, because he can't come out and say "Dean I don't need a home, I have you." Pretty sure that's how Sam feels though.

The final scene where Sam says "There's no place like home." I was really struck by the fact that all three of his homes are in that shot, 1) Dean 2) The Impala 3) The Bunker. So yeah, he's pretty happy, and he's letting himself show that to his brother. (Too bad that there's an angel also taking up space in his body, but he's blissfully unaware for the time being). It does make me sad for Dean though, that he can't really enjoy his brother's happiness like he deserves (and needs) to. Price of keeping his brother alive and with him long enough to get to the happiness...The preview for the next episode made me laugh, Jensen does a very good dog imitation, I'm cautiously looking forward to it and hoping it's a funny episode as Jensen promised (he compared it to Yellow Fever at ChiCon).

My wincest-shipper-goggles made me see Sam's room as the place with the tv and dvd player as just for show to Charlie so that she doesn't see that they of course both actually sleep in "Dean's room". Dean's room not having a tv and dvd player because Sam read somewhere that not having a tv in your bedroom means better sleep and better sex.